A day after returning from his grandfather's funeral in East Moline, Ill., Burrage scored 17 points, including the game-winning basket with 1.9 seconds left, as the Roadrunners defeated Sam Houston State 62-60 on Sunday.

It was a performance Butler, who was 72, would have savored.

“Growing up, he was at all our games,” said Kannon Burrage, a junior in his first season with UTSA after transferring from Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa. “He was very proud.”

Butler's sunny presence was one of the bright spots in a difficult childhood. Most of it was spent at his grandparents' house, where the Burrage boys, a pair of adopted sisters and their parents crammed into two small rooms in the basement.

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It forced Kannon and his brothers to grow up “embarrassingly close,” sleeping three to a bed until the family qualified for a home built by Habitat for Humanity when he was in high school. They also shared a modest wardrobe; as the youngest, Kannon often chose last.

While material resources were in short supply, there was no lack of love. Even after a stroke confined him to a wheelchair in the mid '90s, Butler was a constant source of support and guidance.

“He's been a rock for our family,” Kannon said. “Whenever things got bad, he was there. He was always upbeat about life.”

When Burrage's grades began to slip in middle school, it was Butler who got through with a gentle but firm message: After watching countless lives wasted in their hardscrabble neighborhood — aimless, incarcerated or worse — he didn't want Kannon to squander his.

Burrage is also thriving on the court, leading the Roadrunners in scoring (14.7 points per game) despite coming off the bench. His combination of shooting touch and slashing ability gives coach Brooks Thompson the type of multifaceted threat he's never had at UTSA.

“He knows one thing,” Thompson said, “and that's how to get that ball in the hole.”

While Burrage was pursuing basketball, Butler was deteriorating. He'd been in and out of the hospital for years, including a trip to have a leg amputated, before finally succumbing on Dec. 28. Despite Butler's age and poor health, Kannon was shocked to get the news that his grandfather had died.

“I broke down right when they called me,” he said. “He'd always battled it. He always came home and was his normal self.”

Burrage flew home for the funeral between games against Nicholls and Sam Houston State.

His family will gather in San Antonio for a happier occasion on Feb. 1, when UTSA's contest against Stephen F. Austin will pit Burrage against Hal Bateman, a childhood friend and former junior-college teammate.

It will take place with one notable absence — Butler, who had been planning to attend despite his frailty.

“It's going to be a little bittersweet,” Kendall Burrage said. “It's the first time we'll see him live (at UTSA), but in the back of your mind, you wish (Butler) was there.

“But I know he'd want Kannon to continue to play, like he did after the funeral. He would want him to not worry about it, to keep pushing.”